The present invention relates to skin compliance or stiffness and, in particular, to a hand-held device for providing an accurate measurement of the compliance of human skin. Such a device can be useful in many medical and dental situations, such as those where tissues are required to be load bearing or where tissues swell after treatment.
Among the types of devices currently used to measure the compliance of human skin are those using two parallel members rigidly attached to a support at one end, A probe is attached to a free second end of one or both members and contacts the skin, causing the deflection of at least one of the members as it does so. The magnitude of the deflection caused then the probe contacts the skin is measured to determine the compliance of the skin in the area contacted by the probe.
A problem with this type of device is that the magnitude of deflection of the members is continually changing, making it difficult to obtain an accurate determination of skin compliance. In addition, many such devices are overly sensitive to transverse loads at the probe, causing inaccurate readings.
There is therefore a need for a skin compliance measurement device that is capable of eliminating the uncertainty caused by changes in the magnitude of deflection of the members and by transverse loads on the probe. In addition, it would be beneficial if such a device could be adjusted to allow for a more accurate measurement of skin compliance over a variety of compliance value ranges.